Death And Life
by JaggerK
Summary: Talia has Damian killed and there has to be punishment for that but then he comes back to life and has issues with the punishment that Selina choose to give her.
1. Punishment

_I tweaked some parts of the storyline of Damian's death to suit my universe but it's more or less intact. Let's keep in mind that at this point Selina has a history of going a bit of the rails when someone hurts one of hers._

 _Everything but original ideas belong to DC._

GOTHAM

WAYNE ENTERPRISES

TOP FLOOR

Catwoman shimmied her way through the ventilation shafts with Batgirl right behind her. Spoiler and Black Bat were working their way through shafts on the opposite side. It had been foolish of Talia to set up her command post in the WE building. It was their building. No one knew it, inside and out, better than them.

Batman had just freed himself from his confinement on the roof. She knew he would find a way down to wear their boys were fighting. All of their boys because Robin had joined the fray moments before against orders. Red Robin was down but Hood was watching over him.

Batgirl's soft intake of breath behind her came when Robin's cry heard over the comline for Nightwing went unanswered announcing he was down. Catwoman briefly closed her eyes before continuing forward. Two of her boys down and based on the com chatter Robin was facing The Heretic alone until Batman got there.

Catwoman stopped at the grate into the main area where Talia had set up her command center. She peered out and counted.

"Ladies, are you in position?" She whispered softly.

"We are." Came Spoiler's equally soft reply.

"I count twenty assassins and Talia. We go on my mark. Talia is mine. Are we clear?" Murmured agreement came from all the women. "Ready. Set. Go!"

The grates were pushed out simultaneously onto as soft piece of furniture and the women slid out silently behind them. All the assassins were watching monitors, doorways, or hallways give the women a small window of surprise. It didn't last long but it was enough for them to take out two assassins each.

Catwoman took the path of least resistance toward her target, trusting her teammates, her family, to do their jobs. As she crossed the floor she heard Robin's voice in her ear.

"Mother. Call off your monster." The boy's voice was weak and he choked as he spoke." Mother, call off your"

Robin's voice was cut off unexpectedly.

"No, no, no, no!" The next voice was Nightwing's. It was full of panic, edging on hysteria. "He's gone. That monster killed him."

Catwoman stumbled. Each of the family members in the room slowed, missed a hit, reacted in some way for a split second before returning to the fight.

"Talia!" Catwoman snarled at the woman. Talia slowly turned to face her as if there wasn't a battle going on around them, as if the woman's assassins weren't being beaten down. "How could you?"

"He was flawed. Imperfect." Talia's voice was cold. "There was no point in his continued existence."

"His continued existence?" Catwoman was shocked. "He was a child, your child, _his_ child. Doesn't that mean anything to you?"

"I'm not like you." Talia smiled at her. "I don't develop affection for every wretched, useless soul he brings home with him. Were I in my rightful place that habit of his would be at an end. They would all be gone. Regardless Damian was an experiment gone wrong. You don't continue experiments when they fail."

Something in Catwoman snapped. She lunged forward driven by anger. Talia blocked her kick but the punch snapped Talia's head back. Talia was well trained but she was no match for the anger driving Catwoman. That combined with her lack of protective armour weighted the fight heavily in Catwoman's favour.

When she stopped pummeling Talia the other woman was beaten, bloody, and unconscious on the floor. She looked up to see Batgirl, Spoiler, and Black Bat staring at her with unconscious assassins around them.

"If we're done here let's go get my boys."


	2. Catharsis

When the door to his bedroom swung open and Jason walked in Damian scowled at him.

"I did not give you permission to enter, Todd." He coldly informed his older brother.

"Too bad. We need to talk." Jason dropped down on the end of the bed and rubbed Titus' ears. Damian's scowls deepened. "Everyone knows because you screamed it at Babs that you read the mission reports from the night you died."

"I have every right to read those reports." Damian replied icily.

"You don't have the right to interrogate Babs." Jason's eyes narrowed on him. "Everything was in her report."

"How she stood by and let Kyle almost kill Mother." Damian sneered.

"Talia." Jason corrected. "Selina fought with Talia and Babs was a little busy at the time."

"She is my mother and Kyle almost killed her!" Damian's voice rose in anger and Titus tensed between them. Damian regained control of himself and soothed the Dane.

"When I was little I had a mother. Catherine did her best to take care of me, protect me from Willis, she loved me so much. I can hold on to that and remember it now instead of all the bad parts after with the drugs. Later, after Bruce brought me here, I found out Catherine wasn't my birth mother and I ran away to find this woman who was going to make everything alright." Jason smiled bitterly.

"I know the story of your ultimate stupidity, Todd." Damian snapped at him.

"I'm telling you a story. You have to listen to the whole thing." Jason rolled his eyes at him. "That woman who gave birth to me, that was somehow magically supposed to love me because of it, gave me up to Joker to save her own hide in a heartbeat. He sure showed her. Meanwhile, back in Gotham, another woman put Harley in ICU trying to get the information that would save me. By then, I was already gone. It was too late; it was too late before she even knew I was in danger. Even when she did know that the guilt that she should been faster, done better ate her up inside for years."

Jason paused and watched Damian who was staring at him. "That's what real mothers do. They feel guilty even when it's out of their control, when there's nothing they can do to stop what's happening to their children. They don't order their children's deaths; they don't even just stand by and let it happen. They jump into the line of fire. Even if all that is between them and a hail of bullets is layer of leather. I bet you didn't know Selina did that for Dickie back before she got the suit upgrade?"

Wordlessly Damian shook his head.

"Well she did. Without thinking about, because there wasn't time, she just threw herself in front of him. Almost died, should have died, and she would have been happy to do so because Dick would have lived." Jason smiled slightly. "She'd do it for any of us, for me, for you. If you go downstairs and yell at her she'll take it. If you don't want to talk to her anymore she'll take that too. She'll understand that Talia is your mother and she's just Bruce's wife. That whatever you built between you was too fragile to withstand what happened. She loves you that much and she never asks for more than what we can give her. She's pretty awesome that way."

Jason took a deep breath. "I want you to think about it though. Do you want a mother who will stab you in the back at every turn, sometimes literally? Or do you want a mother who will go to the mat for you? One who would be willing to give up her life for yours if necessary?"

With that, Jason got up and left the room pulling the door closed behind him. Damian sat on the bed with Titus frowning.

It was several hours later with he decided to go looking for her. He crept silently through the manor. Not that he truly believed that anyone he passed didn't actually know he was there. They likely chose to ignore him. The scene with Gordon had been bad bringing everyone running. As it happened, there had been a family dinner scheduled so virtually everyone had been there. He finally found Kyle on the roof of the manor watching the sunset. Damian approached her with caution.

"I may sit with you?" Damian waited.

"Sure." She didn't look at him.

"Ky-Selina, I…." Damian hesitated. "I did not mean the things I said."

"Didn't you?" Selina's voice was calm and controlled. "It seemed pretty clear that you did."

"Perhaps at the time." Damian winced. "I have had some time to think. I spoke with Todd or rather he spoke to me."

Selina did not respond and still did not look at Damian.

"Mothers are supposed to defend their children, are they not?" Damian whispered. "I believe my perspective on this may have been…affected by my upbringing."

"Oh, Damian." Now Selina did look at him.

"I do not wish to be pitied. I am who I am." Damian resisted the urge to flinch. "Perhaps I need to look at my childhood in a harsher light."

"Maybe not in a harsher light, maybe you just need to acknowledge that things were less ideal than you have convinced yourself. That doesn't mean that it was all bad, Damian." She smiled at him.

"I have not currently found anything that was good."

"Your mother brought you here, to your father, to your family." Selina pointed out. "Start there."

"She brought me here to sabotage that family, your relationship. That hardly sounds good." Damian snorted.

"Whatever her intention you are here with your father, with your family. It is a good thing. It backfired on her." Selina squeezed his hand encouragingly. "Start there."

He looked at her startled. "You are a much better person than Talia. I think I understand more of what Todd was saying as well."

"Good." Selina gestured in front of her. "Would you like to watch the sunset with me?"

"Yes. Yes, I think I would."


End file.
